To date, media libraries having automatic storage and retrieval capabilities have been limited to one type of media containing cartridge. For example, the Beach U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,197 shows a tape library which automatically stores and retrieves data-storing tape cartridges--all of the tape cartridges have the same physical outline shape. Similarly, other media library systems have the same limitation. Beach shows a travelling elevator system for fetching and storing cartridges from and to addressed compartments in the library storage array. Power and control is transmitted to the travelling elevator via a flexible flat cable.
In the last years there has been a proliferation of differently shaped media cartridges. For example, there are the well known VHS video cartridges, the 8 mm video cartridges, the 3.5 inch magnetic disk data-storing cartridges, the 3.5 and 5.25 inch optical media cartridges, differently sized and shaped magnetic tape cartridges, etc. Diverse optical media types are known, such as read-only (CD-ROMs, for example), write-once read-many (WORM) consisting of diverse media such as ablative, phase change, etc., and rewriteable media. Such rewriteable media includes the well known magnetic tapes and disks, magnetooptical disks, and the like. It is desired to enable using a single media library construction for accommodating a plurality of differently shaped information or data-storing cartridges in one modularly constructed library apparatus.